Eclipse (Star Wars zine)

Zine
Title:	Eclipse
Publisher:	Galactic Winds Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Jeanine Hennig
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):	Dani Lane
Date(s):	May 1987
Medium:	print
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Wars
Language:	English
External Links:
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Eclipse is gen Star Wars 239-page novel by Jeanine Hennig. On the cover, "A Catalyst! Novella." It is part of the Catalyst! Collected series. The art is by Dani Lane.

Summaries

Summary from an ad in Southern Enclave: "What happens when a Jedi Healer loses the final battle with death? What could force the ultimate betrayal? What could stage the defeat of the Grand Master of the New Order of Jedi Knights? What could drive Alliance and Jedi apart-- then force them back together in a tumult of despair? And what could drive a young Jedi girl to rip open the barriers of TIme itself to retrieve what she has irrevocably lost?"

From Star Wars Zine Bibliography: "Rhevyn Kenobi after Luke - kidnaps Wedge, Jessami, Marika (Luke's daughter) and Bran (Han's son)."

From the Author's Afterword

I've felt all the way through this that it was a final exam. Thus my question above. I've learned a lot of new things about the Catalyst! kids this past year. Enough that even as I type this, the synopsis and sample chapters of a pro version book in the series are at my agent's. She says she really likes them. So over the next two years, start looking for a very-much-changed old/new chapter in Catalyst! and the series inspired. Hopefully, if the Force is with me, you'11 see it on the shelf of your local bookstore.

This new beginning also means that I must make an ending. Eclipse is the last chapter on something which has been a very big part of my life. And Catalyst! Collected Vol. II, in it some stories both revised and totally new, will close the book. But I still hope that those of you who've read and enjoyed my stuff will keep reading and enjoying, no matter the medium of expression, be it pro or fannish. I do not intend to ' leave' fandom -- how can I leave something which is so much a part of me? I think 'cut back' is a better expression where the writing and editing and drawing is concerned, anyway. I will never cut back on you, my acquaintances and friends

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Reactions and Reviews

1987

Jeanine Hennig's "Catalyst!" series consists of two volumes of stories from various zines, compiled in Catalyst! Collected, Volumes I & 2. Her series splits from Lucas's version: Luke is bonded with Jessami Kenobi, Ben's granddaughter, and linked in a triad of power to Wedge Antilles. Leia is not his sister, and his mother is an integral character. The series has an incredibly complicated plotline, and it is recommended that readers new to Jeanine's world start off with the compilations, or they may have a hard time fitting the characters in place in her newest novel. Eclipse.

The events of this story are set seventeen years after the destruction of the Emperor and Vader. Luke has separated the Jedi from the Alliance military, and from the Jedi Homeworld he has trained a new generation of Force-users. But not everything has gone well for Luke. Wedge has left them five years before and lives on the fringes of his power, drowning his pain in alcohol. His daughter is bonded to a new student, rejecting Han and Leia's son. And two survivors from the past threaten the Alliance's future, casting Luke into living in the World Outside Time.

Well, I'm no critic and don't know how to review, but I do know a durn good story when I see it and I can't recommend too strongly J. Hennig's "Eclipse". Really a terrific novel with near-perfect plotting, mystery, characterization and anything else you care to name. The storyline itself is marvelous and the intracacies involved in bringing all the sub-plots together were nothing short of brilliant! Usually, I tend to look askance at new characters and they have to be really good for me to accept them, but Jenni's people in this story are who they are supposed to be (does anyone understand that last bit? Told you I was no reviewerl), both old and new characters. as you know, I've had trouble a time or two with your characterization of Luke, saying, "Uh-uh, the Luke I know wouldn't behave that way," but the Luke in "Eclipse" is perfect -- just the man the Luke I've known and loved for ten years would become. Bravo, Jenni!